Wales boss Warren Gatland was left unimpressed after an incident involving New Zealand's Andrew Hore went unpunished on Saturday in Cardiff.
Hore was caught on camera delivering what appeared to be a swinging punch to the head of Bradley Davies, with the Wales lock then forced to leave the field. The incident was not punished at the time, but Hore appears certain to be cited.
"It does not look the best in the world, it looks like he has been caught from behind, I don't know whether it is a swinging arm or not," said Gatland.
"You do not associate the All Blacks as being a side that resort to cheap shots and I hope that is not the case and that maybe it was an accident.
"Bradley has gone down in a heap, we had to admit him to hospital, he doesn't quite know where he is at but fingers crossed he recovers.
"He was a big loss to us and it took us a bit of time to cope."
Overall Gatland was proud of his players for sticking with the All Blacks despite finishing far behind on the scoreboard, with the home side scoring two tries through Scott Williams and Alex Cuthbert.
"We could have thrown in the towel against the world champions but we didn't do that," added Gatland.
"I thought we grew into the game and took the game to them in the second half. I'm proud of the way we stole territory and possession in the second half but unfortunately we weren't able to do it in the first and the game got away from us.
"We wanted to take the game to the All Blacks. You've got to take some risks against them."
Comments
daibok says...
It certainly looked bad but my main reaction is surprise. Hore is a great player and I have never seen him act like this before in tests or Super Rugby.
Posted 14:29 25th November 2012
jamesliveinhope says...
I wonder what the ref thought during the injury interval watching the replay over and over again and being able to do nothing about it
Posted 14:08 25th November 2012
chisel68 says...
Cowardly act from Hore. No excuses, simply ban him for 8 weeks. The Kiwis are masters of taking defenders out of play, but this went waaaaaaay to far.
A Richard Loe-style act.
Posted 13:04 25th November 2012
three6three6 says...
There is no doubt that an atrocity was committed by Andrew Hore. There is also no doubt that had the referee / assistant referees seen this then Hore would have been removed from the field of play.
However, the atrocity was not seen by the officials and therefore there was no dissmissal for Hore. The matter is now in the hands of the Citing Commissioner / Officer. There is nothing more that can be done to redress the balance - Wales were beaten and deservedly so, after all they only scored 10 points against their opponents 33 points.
There is the wider question of foul play and should the video referee be called upon to adjudicate on such matters? This was trialled in French rugby a few years ago as a method of ridding the game of 'thuggery'. I personally think that there are currently sufficient sanctions in place to stamp out bad behaviour through the citing system.
To suggest that this win was somehow tainted because Hore was not dissmissed is complete nonsense..... Thankfully, there are adequate processes in place to ensure that he will receive an appropriate sanction.
Posted 12:24 25th November 2012
Trader2 says...
startledwombat
Agree with you 100%, of course in the thug stakes I would add Higginbotham, you know the old knee and headbutt to a man on the ground.
Posted 11:50 25th November 2012
kybone says...
The thing that gets me most about this that sometimes players do stupid things and then regret it afterwords. There was a camera shot of Hore a few minutes after the incident where he appeared to be telling his team mates what he'd just done, with a massive grin on his face.
Posted 11:46 25th November 2012
lawynd says...
@StunTheMullet - two wrongs don't make a right, and each case of foul play has to be judged on its own merits. I appreciate that sometimes things are missed but that's not exclusive to one team or another. For my money, I don't think Hore deliberately set out to sucker Davies but he did, and it was off the ball. He deserves four weeks at a minimum.
Posted 11:05 25th November 2012
startledwombat says...
I gave up watching Australian Rules after a thug king-hit one of the opposition players as the Grand Final was starting.
Broke his jaw.
The thug's team won the Grand Final because the opposition had lost one of their key players.
I never expected to see such callous disregard in rugby union. I would have thought the All Blacks were comfortable enough in themselves and when playing Wales to not do this sort of thing.
After seeing this footage on youtube I'd be happy not to see this guy on a rugby field ever again. He's just another Richard Loe.
Posted 10:02 25th November 2012
runnrugby says...
Its a swinging arm where the forearm makes contact not a punch. "Swinging punch" sounds silly. Hore might get a lengthy ban more than just a few weeks as it was off the ball, from behind and he caused injury. Its hard to defend that. Cant blame the officials for missing it as it was 30 seconds into the game and behind play and the crowd didnt notice either and only reacted when they saw it on replay.
Posted 09:59 25th November 2012
malkhut10 says...
@Mace
Your comment is so out of kilter with the reaction of anyone who likes rugby. No one is defending the incident here, and if you think that there is anything provincial about Gatland's reaction, you are being deliberately obtuse. There is absolutely no place for downright thuggery in the game, and surely you must agree, NZ, as the best team in the world, shouldn't, and don't need to resort to it. If Hansen is a half-way decent human he will impose a punishment (whatever disciplinary action is decided on externally) simply for bringing the reputation of a great team in to disrepute.
Posted 09:57 25th November 2012
paulynz says...
@Mace
Time for your n...
Nah, can't be bothered...
Posted 09:32 25th November 2012
Toulousain says...
@jmanngod who says "It looked bad but in reality was just a clumsy attempt at a big clean out"
Seriously? That's what the apologists said about Rougerie. And honestly, you don't join want to join that camp, do you?
Posted 09:31 25th November 2012
StunTheMullet says...
Warren didn't seem to mind when Boofhead Powell tackled Sir Richie in the face.
Posted 08:37 25th November 2012
Rugbydaft says...
He should have been dealt with on the pitch stuff professional crap just deal with him
Posted 08:33 25th November 2012
scrumpoacher says...
If seen by the ref would it have been a red card offence? Jmanngod you are a troll of the highest order-that was not a clumsy clear out-AB's are better than that and he wasn't standing over the ruck...I hope he gets a long time away from the game for it. Cheers
Posted 08:26 25th November 2012
kybone says...
jmanngod-'It looked bad but in reality was just a clumsy attempt at a big clean out'- You surely can't be serious! Bradley Davies wasn't even in the ruck! If he was trying to clear him out he would have hit him in the mid rif with the shoulder to clear him out of the way, what he actually did was come up from behind, swing his arm at head height, and connect with the cheak bone to a player who wasn't even watching and therefore completely defenceless.
Mace-'Boo hoo go cry to your mummy's. Go coach pu$$y rugby league then!!!'- So you think Hore is a hard man then do you? Yea he's a real braveheart. I mean to come up and attack someone from behind while they're not looking or even aware of your presence is surely one of the hardest and bravest things you can do on a rugby field!!
Posted 08:12 25th November 2012
jonesy2 says...
it didnt look good but hore isnt a dirty player. you would hope it was a clumsy cleanout that he got wrong and accidental. it wasnt a dean greyling elbow thats for sure.
Posted 07:51 25th November 2012
kiwilad says...
Jmanngod,Mace There is no place in rugby for the come from behind swingarm that Hore delivered.
It staggers me that you could possibly defend it, almost as much as Hore actually doing it.
Deserves 4 to 6 weeks, more if he had a history of cynical play.
And perhaps players committing fowl play like this in future should give match fee to the poor bugga they fowled.
Posted 07:14 25th November 2012
leebok says...
What do you expect from the Kiwis.
Posted 06:56 25th November 2012
cuw3100 says...
Was it Welsh game plan to have a go at the ABs? At times it looked more like grid iron than RU !!!
As a student of the game I'm trying hard to understand this dummy running by the attacking team.
Is it within the LAWS to be well in front of the ball as a dummy runner?
Saw it several times players way in front of the ball and the attacking line and only once did the referee penalise for crossing.
Just trying to understand the way it works ...:)
Posted 04:32 25th November 2012